In an increasingly wide variety of business applications, it is desirable and necessary to convey items such as cash and currency, documents, food, messages and other items between spaced apart stations. For example, various devices for conveying items between a plurality of stations have been shown in this inventor's previous U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,824 entitled "Conveyor System For Drive-In Banks And The Like", issued Mar. 8, 1977; as well as pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/080,494, filed Jul. 31, 1987 and entitled "Food Service System For Drive-In Restaurants", and application Ser. No. 07/249,704, filed Sept. 27, 1988 and entitled "Conveyor System With Stabilized Conveyor Basket". U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,824 discloses a belt-type drive-up conveyor system including a plurality of modules each having reversible conveying means which, when concurrently driven, convey a container between spaced apart stations.
The referenced co-pending patent applications pertain more particularly to conveyor systems including a basket-like carrier for transporting items through a housing extending vertically upwardly from a processing station, horizontally through a canopy overlying one or more drive-in lanes, and then vertically downward through a housing forming a part of the delivery station. The basket is suspended between an opposing pair of spaced apart drive members which define a path of travel for the carrier basket. While the drive means of these systems can be an opposing set of conveyor chains, drive belts or elastomeric drive tapes, these systems contemplate more complex arrangements for conveying items which must remain vertically oriented throughout the conveying movements, such as liquid containers, food items and the like.
Other transport and conveying systems available heretofore have employed various combinations of rail systems or similar cable-car drive systems which required relatively complex arrangements of rails and/or cables, and were accordingly unnecessarily expensive and difficult to install and maintain in reliable working condition. An example of a railway type transport system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,336, which issued to W. Anders on Oct. 25, 1983. As shown in this reference, the Anders banking system contemplates a heavy duty railway transport system including a track which aligns and supports a self-propelled car therealong. Anders further discloses a relatively complex mechanism for maintaining a load-carrying container in upright condition along the length of the track, and a system of actuator switches to control the self-propelled car and the doors adjacent the respective customer and teller terminals. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 2,896,748, which issued to S. McClintock on Jul. 28, 1959, discloses a complex curb service device which utilizes a series of endless carrier chains to propel a carrier assembly having a series of guide rollers and angled guide rails or guide pieces along which the rollers are moved. Again, this system is quite complex, and requires the interaction of numerous moving parts and careful tensioning of the chain drive system in order to maintain proper function. U.S. Pat. No. 3,875,868 describes a relatively complex cable-car arrangement requiring aligned rails and an endless, tensioned cable arrangement.
In addition to the above referenced co-pending patent applications, there are other devices available which utilize flexible tape drive elements to avoid the utilization of endless drive systems which must be assembled and maintained in particularly tensioned arrangement for proper operation. U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,359, which issued to J. Gross on Nov. 25, 1986, contemplates a flexible drive system utilizing aligned guideways to control devices such as currency carriers in automatic bank teller machines for movement between various positions. Particularly, the Gross device utilizes flexible tape storage spools which temporarily windingly receive the excess length of the flexible tape which is driven by sprocket wheels located adjacent those storage spools. Tabs attached to the end of these flexible tapes enable attachment of a currency carrier device to be driven by the tapes. Reciprocating movement of the drive tapes moves the currency carrier to various positions and implements other mechanical operations within the automatic teller machine in order to dispense the currency as required.
The present invention responds to a need for a simpler, inexpensive yet reliable conveyor system for moving items between spaced apart stations in a quiet, efficient, and reliable manner.